I was laughing with my sister last night about how I didn''t know the difference between my BMI and body fat % (for the record, my BMI is over 20. Much too high to be a model, I''m sure!)

She was talking to me about the days when she was a model in LA and how they were constantly trying to get her to lose 5 more lbs. She''s 5'' 9" and was down to 110. When she started losing her hair instead of lbs, she quit! She went up to 120 and said she couldn''t help but feel she was too big--being a model for just a few years literally warped her body image for over a decade. Now she has a daughter and really worked on her own body image so she didn''t influence her daugther and is closer to 130--I think she''s the healthiest I''ve ever seen her, but the impression left on her from being told repeatedly that she was too big at 110 lbs. was surprisingly hard to overcome.

I totally think there should be healthy limitations on supermodels; it''s ridiculous when you hear 7 year olds saying they''re too fat when they''re already all knees and elbows.

Something''s got to give. A friend of a friend has a 12 year old fighting for her life due to anorexia. She is at a treatment facility and fights every day to eat. Just to eat. It''s sick, and it''s only a product of the environment we live in.

So, so, so sad.

I also get SO tired of the show "America''s Next Top Model" calling any model who''s over about 115 a "plus size" model. How about a "real model?" I''ve not seen one yet who wears "plus sizes." If being a size 10 means "plus size," then somewhere what is HEALTHY and AVERAGE got WAY, WAY out of whack.

Well, for argument''s sake, size 10 today isn''t what it was 50 years ago or even 5 years ago (I just tried on a size 8P skirt from Ann Taylor that my sister must have bought 10 years ago -- it fit in the waist but did have some give in the hips -- today I am a size 0P in their clothing and an 8P would fall to the floor).

I agree that the BMI system is far from perfect. At the very least, the powers that be should add a body build option as I have seen for other height/weight charts: small-boned, medium, large-boned, or whatever.

I also agree that if you eat appropriately and are active, then there is no harm in a low BMI. My health bible, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy says that health risks correlated with low BMI are most likely to do with the fact that people with terminal illnesses or unhealthy habits tend to have low body weights, but there is no evidence that a healthy but slim person it at any risk just due to being slim.

But from my own experience, I do think it''s best to have all types of people as standards of beauty, not just slim, tall people. Height is not something we can help at all, and for many people, eating right and exercising will not result in super skinniness. So then we are on a quixotic quest for a body that can never be ours.

I''ve lost 20-25 pounds in the last year (went from high end to low end of normal BMI), and I realized just recently that I have problems seeing myself as I am. I still think I''m a pear shape or have big thighs, and here I am buying size 0P. It took seeing pictures for me to see what I didn''t seem to be seeing in the mirror -- that thanks to a small bone structure, exercise, and healthy eating I really am a slim person. But I literally didn''t know that for several months. I''d say, well, I''m still hippy or I''ll always carry fat in my thighs, but then I saw myself in pictures and was like, Who is that skinny girl?

I do remember in middle school when I hit puberty and started getting curves/body fat. I substituted potato chips with frosted flakes (I obviously didn''t know much about healthy eating!) and lost enough weight that one of my teachers said something. Prepuberty, I had that model build of no fat or hips or anything, and when my body mildly changed in a healthy way I thought I looked terrible. Isn''t that sad?

So it''s not that there''s anything wrong with being naturally tall and thin, but who really, truly eats as much as their body needs and is still tall and super skinny? A tiny, tiny percentage of the population. And why can''t you be short and curvy or medium-height and zaftig and still be a model?

I also don''t know how models pull off the clothes that they wear because I have a small chest and often find that I can''t wear tops or dresses because I don''t fill them out. How do those bean poles make something look good that was created for a good-sized bust? Or is that when they send in the "plus-size" models?

I agree that sizes are really messed up. If I buy anything at Banana Republic, for example, I am at least a 0 or XS - and even then the tops are often way too big. But when I buy my Hugo Boss or my recent DVF dress, I am a size 4. That is likely closer to my "real" size, not a 0.

LitigatorChick

"A cause may be inconvenient, but it’s magnificent. It’s like champagne or high heels, and one must be prepared to suffer for it.”